He was a Geordie hero who got too big for his size 17 boots, and we cashed in on him ... and his gigantic ego.
He wanted to "play for the best", but the grass was never greener on the other side.
Newcastle United was perfect for him, and he has been a disaster from the day he left Tyneside.
West Ham's record signing, who has been out of action this season due to a foot injury, made his comeback against Cardiff and then appeared as a substitute again in Saturday's 3-1 home defeat by Newcastle.
The loss dropped the Hammers back into the relegation zone but boss Allardyce is refusing to panic by rushing Carroll, a £15m buy from Liverpool, back into the side before he is 100 per cent ready.
However, he does concede the England striker will be given another run-out against Manchester City in Tuesday's Capital One Cup semi-final second leg with the Londoners trailing 6-0 from the first game at the Etihad last week.
Sam Allardyce: "Andy is going to compete in a game for the first time just a few days after playing on Saturday.
"This is something we are looking forward to in the hope that there are no problems and knowing he is getting even closer to a full 90 minutes.
"Our other scenario, from a defensive point of view, is to continue to try and get Joey O'Brien, Winston Reid and George McCartney back playing as quickly as we can.
"And we also have Ricardo Vaz Te to come back. He has been out for around 12 weeks and people tend to forget about the long-term injury list to people who are very important to our team, and squad.
"So all the players are looking close to returning from injury which is very important for the next 16 Premier League games to come after this.
"The difficult part from my point of view is getting a team out onto the pitch and playing well.
"But, hopefully, come the end of the season we can look back and say 'well that was a tough season but we are where we need to be... the Barclays Premier League."